Who Do You Trust - Page 24

Why? So that more people don't end up with dogs with DM - not good enough?
If you want to recommend breeders TO NEWBIES who don't test, that's your perrogative. I choose not to and I think it's OK for me to say that here.
 

 You asked why, and I offered an explanation- the reason I see most people not doing it. They've never had a dog affected, never known anyone with an affected dog, don't know anything about it, and therefore don't test. It's not some big conspiracy to try to ruin people's lives with DM dogs. It's just that they don't KNOW. Again, how about posting pedigrees? When people see familiar names, it might get them to think twice. Why are you so opposed to calling out these lines that have it? If someone's dog regularly produces epilepsy or dysplasia, it's all over the place. Why not show the peds and see if we can learn anything or get someone with related breeding dogs to test or quit? That, to me, seems far more proactive and purposeful than just bashing people who don't currently test. 

People who are testing for DM and are not discriminate in the quality of their breeding dogs can have a very negative affect on the GSD as a breed. If they keep only dogs that are N/N and every kennel who has dogs with normal gene don't have quality, say temperament, and people looking for "responsible" breeder testing for DM chooses from such kennel, then pretty soon the GSD as a breed is going to backslide to the point it won't be worth the powder to blow it away. That is what happens when too much weight is put on test results for DM, which even the OFA has warned against. OFA has stated that the mutated gene is so prevalent that culling(not using) dogs with the mutation would be detrimental to the breed. One must keep things in perspective.

Yes, Joanro. This goes back to what Gustav said with hybrid vigor- too much bottlenecking is no good. Look at all the problems that have already been created. I took it a step further and said natural selection should be allowed to play a greater role. 

The test should be nothing more than another tool, one more factor in a breeding decision, not THE breeding decision. As I stated in another  thread (or this one...seems all the threads around here are suddenly about DM), many of the people I see testing aren't doing the right thing with the knowledge, imho. I see many testing for everything under the sun, whether it's a real risk or not, in the interest of being "responsible" and yet they let the truly important traits fall by the wayside. When I breed, I try to breed for the whole dog, and take the whole picture into consideration. One must weigh pros and cons and breed accordingly. Naturally, some weigh heavier than others, but it would serve people well to remember there is no perfect dog, and you must try to improve with every pairing. Throwing out every carrier would be no more beneficial than throwing out every breeding pair who has ever produced a dysplastic dog. 

In some breeds the percentage of dogs tested at risk is much higher than in this breed. So far, per the OFA test, about 75% of GSD's have tested clear while breeds like Corgis have a much lower test rate, around 25% I think. I posted the OFA recommendations here so have read them too.

I have said this a million times, it is not a test designed to eliminate one single dog from a breeding program. It is intended to identify that breeding risk so the breeders can select accordingly and try to not double up on the at risks. I have never said it is recommended to not breed an at risk or a carrier. If I were buying a dog I would like to know the DM status of the parents so I could make an educated guess on the chance that dog might end up with DM. For that same reason I think it's only right to advise newbies that a DM test is an important pre-breeding clearance and why. Seasoned GSD owners have enough information to make their own decisions and if they don't feel as if a DM ID is vital to them, then they can continue to buy and breed dogs with unknown DM status; that's their decision.

I don't know how long it will take for this breed to randomly produce a higher percentage of at risks and if we will ever catch up with breeds like the Welsh Corgi. I hope that never happens. I am amazed to learn that a large percentage of GSD breeders have never heard of DM and/or the DNA test. 




 

Mother nature is a ruthless teacher, and humans will never beat her...

Is that a real pic of your dog-his tongue is like a mile long it cracks me up

Actually, Blitzen, I don't think it's a matter of catching up to other breeds, being that the disease used to be considered a German shepherd dog condition. Not any more, they are way down on the list for occurrence, so we must be doing something right. And that has been before OFA found another test to make money off dog owners. Initially the DNA test was for diagnostic purpose, now it is for profiling. Which is not bad, except other than testing pups before their sold and killing the A/A pups because nobody would want them, there is really no application except OFA making a bunch of money from a test that is arbitrary at best, being that regardless of test results breeding worthy dogs are still going to be used. And guess what, those rocket scientists don't know why all "at risk" don't develop the disease or why some reach well into their teens before any symptoms occur. Let's not create a holocaust against the breed for the sake of political correctness.

Why did you test your own dogs, joanro?

If the parents are tested and an at risk is not bred to another at risk or a carrier is not bred to another carrier, there will be be no AA's to worry about..and that's the point of using the DNA test.


 

Ok, let me try to explain this way : if you can only mate pairs according to compatibility based on those test results, you may as well throw out all knowledge of individual characteristics of dogs since they may not be good DNA matches, and then you wind up with DNA desirable dogs that are randomly matched regarding all other traits.